Meet The HMMWV’s New Replacement: The Oshkosh L-ATV


Meet The HMMWV’s New Replacement: The Oshkosh L-ATV

The HMMWV, AM General’s military truck that has been in service since 1984, has a replacement, after years of testing and several prototypes. Oshkosh Defense was awarded the $6.75 billion (!!) contract to produce 17,000 of the L-ATV (Light Armored Tactical Vehicles) for use by the United States Army and the United States Marine Corps and is intended to take over the light transport/personnel carrier role that the HMMWV currently fills. Oshkosh has been working with the military since the early 1980s, and while they are best known for the HEMTT series of trucks, they also took over the LMTV production from Stewart and Stevenson.

JLTV 2

I recently highlighted some issues regarding the Hummer H1, and to be fair, a lot of those same issues cover the military HMMWV the same. The 6.2L and non-turbocharged 6.5L diesel V8s were barely adequate and the gearing was limited, capping most HMMWVs at 65 miles an hour if you were lucky. The turbocharged 6.5L trucks with the overdrive automatic would move better, but neither vehicle would be what you would consider “quick”. The wide transmission tunnel was a benefit for radios or a platform for a gunner, but the near-nonexistant room for passengers remained. And then there was the fatal flaw that was exposed in the last decade: the HMMWV, for any and all of it’s positive attributes, could not stand up to the heavy attacks that it met in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the weight of the armor added on to the vehicles killed any hope of performance that was there. Patch fixes were implemented, such as “hillbilly armor”, sandbags, up-armor kits, and even MRAPs (which were too big for the main job) while the military looked for a suitable replacement.

LATV 2

The L-ATV is big. Don’t get mixed messages, it is bigger than the outgoing HMMWV. It will tip the scales at around 15,000 or so pounds. But a lot of that weight is due to the MRAP-level armor that the vehicle has. To power the beast, a GM-sourced 6.6L Duramax V8 powertrain has been tapped, and rumors are floating that a possible diesel-electric hybrid system could be in the works. Top speeds would likely be limited to 70-ish miles an hour, if that, but performance should be sharply improved over the HMMWV. Oshkosh’s Tak-4i independent suspension system is utilized here, allowing 20 inches of wheel travel at all four corners. Layouts will determine passenger counts, and we should expect to see two-door and four-door pickups, a close-cap “suv”-style layout, and at least one gun truck layout early on.

LATV 3


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9 thoughts on “Meet The HMMWV’s New Replacement: The Oshkosh L-ATV

  1. Sumgai

    Though some people say the competing designs looked better, I’m just happy there’s a replacement for the HMMWV and its lame engines. When I was last deployed those things were always in the shop.

    Here’s hoping there’s an accessible OBD2 port for troops to upload a custom tune for the Duramax.

  2. Threedoor

    Just about anything is better than a hummer. I was stationed at Ft Campbell 04-10 and there where a few yards that were stocked with what looked like this truck or the competitors prototypes, I think they had International emblems on the hoods but they looked very much the same. heres to hoping that the doors are thicker than the rest of the up-armored stuff.

    1. BeaverMartin

      I was at FTCKY around the same time. Those were MATVs and MAX Pro DASH ISS variants. The division got them to train Soldiers on driving them prior to deploying. The L-ATV looks a lot like a M-ATV. So no one should worry Soldiers will be getting them stuck and destroying/driving over random shit in no time.

  3. Keith Turk Jr.

    This is a great new vehicle add to the army fleet. Its has better performance and protection than both armored and unarmored version of the humvee.
    And it’s significantly lighter and less expensive that the Osh-Kosh M-ATV with better off road handling which makes it much better for most of the original humvees intended missions.
    I’m looking forward to seeing some of the other configurations as well.
    Tanks and infantry fighting vehicles are still the toughest frontline vehicles but armored jeeps like these saves lives.
    In fact, if you analyze a number of statistics such as: cost of the medical treatment and disability expenses to the taxpayer, as opposed to the price difference between unarmored vehicles versus armored vehicles. Its not just safer vehicles it is actually cheaper to give our troops that protection than it is to pay for their injuries. There’s no reason to not get them

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